About Macs and AV software

I’ve gotten a silly number of emails from people regarding a recent story where Apple was purportedly recommending that Mac users install multiple anti-virus (AV) solutions. This was seen as pretty humorous, I guess, given the Mac’s security aura and the fact that many of Apple’s commercials deal with supposed virus problems on Windows.

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesman Bill Evans, told Macworld. "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”

So here’s the thing. If you actually read the original note, it referred to “Mac OS” not “Mac OS X.” Apple never refers to Mac OS X as “Mac OS.” So this read like it was referring to the company’s classic, pre-OS X operating system. Which, apparently it was.

Also, I would say that while I don’t use OS X regularly anymore (who would with Windows Vista and 7 around?), I would never install AV on that system, ever. And that’s true even if I were using it 24/7. It may not last, but for now at least, Mac users don’t need AV. That’s the simple truth.

Put simply, I didn’t post about the original AV story because I didn’t think it was newsworthy. Funny, maybe, but then it didn’t feel right either. And I guess it wasn’t.